I think a lot of it does come down to what you’re already used to and what you associate with a given program. So if your first exposure and/or main exposure to a program, be it Inkscape or Illustrator, is some sort of stressful school or work environment, then that program is going to feel a bit more tedious to use compared to if your first exposure to the program is for your hobbies. Even if you’re being explicitly taught how to use the program, the types of projects they make you do when they teach you this or that, they aren’t very interesting projects, right?

So as a whole I think it’s best to learn Inkscape through just making things for fun. The question then is what to make, exactly. For myself, I started out using Inkscape just to vectorize a fairly simple flag design I’d drawn in MS Paint, back when I was maybe 15 years old. And from there I gradually went over the course of a few years from simple, geometric flags to considerably more complex projects, just pushing myself a little more each time: projects where I knew I could do it no matter what, but there were still some flourishes here or there that I could add to make it shine just a little more.

But ultimately, I don’t know what things you use vector editors for, and I don’t know what it is about Inkscape that you don’t like. Because there are things about Inkscape that I don’t like, either.